Plastic and other film bags have found wide use in grocery markets and retail applications for transporting produce groceries and various other items. To be most useful for consumers plastic bags should incorporate a number of features. These features relate to the ease of use of the bags with respect to opening them, placing goods inside, carrying them and dispensing them. As shelf space and floor space is always at a premium in grocery stores and supermarkets, more compact methods of storing and making available relatively large size bags is always desirable. The instant invention addresses the production of large size produce bags that are folded in thirds for use in compact rolls. These rolls fit in relatively small dispensers that make use of the available space most efficiently.
A variety of designs have been developed. U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,717, issued to Belias et al., is directed to a method of forming a plurality of easy to open handle bags including the steps of providing a flattened tube of thermoplastic material oriented in a generally longitudinal direction. The flattened tube has a first longitudinal side edge and a second longitudinal side edge, a transverse lower heat seal, and a transverse upper heat seal. The tube also has first, second, and third sections. The second section is disposed between the first and third sections. The first section is joined to the second section along a generally longitudinal first fold line. The second section is joined to the third section along a generally longitudinal second fold line. The second section is cut along a generally transverse first cut line extending between the first and second fold lines. The first section is folded over the second section along the first fold line. The third section is folded over the previously folded-over first section along the second fold line such that the first, second, and third sections overlap one another.
The overlapped first, second, and third sections are cut along a generally longitudinal second cut line that intersects the first cut line, the first fold line, and the second side edge at one end and intersects the upper heat seal at the other end. The overlapped first, second, and third sections are then cut along a generally longitudinal third cut line that intersects the first cut line, the second fold line, and the first side edge at one end and intersects the upper heat seal at the other end.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,810, issued to Barlow, discloses an extruded plastics tube that is flattened with the lateral side portions folded to form inwardly extending gussets. Each gusseted side portion is then folded about a longitudinal fold line onto the medial portion between the side portions. The resultant layers are heat sealed to form the bottom of the bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,222, issued to West et al., describes A folded gusseted plastic bag has a first side gusset formed by first, second, and third longitudinal folds, a second side gusset formed by fourth, fifth, and sixth longitudinal folds, a seventh longitudinal fold being on a side of the bag containing the first, second, and third folds and forming a first folded bag flap, and an eighth longitudinal fold which is on a side of the bag containing the fourth, fifth, and sixth folds, the eighth fold forming a second folded bag flap. The folded gusseted bag also is folded into a total of at least eight contiguous plies. A roll of the folded, gusseted bags includes a continuous web of the folded, flattened bags joined along perforated severance lines. Preferably the perforated severance lines further comprise a centrally-located slit. The dispensing system utilizes the roll of folded-gusseted bags in combination with a dispenser comprising: (i) a support member for attachment to a support surface; (ii) a pair of guide channels carried by the support member for rotatably supporting the roll of plastic bags for rotation of the roll on the core; (iii) a tongue spaced apart from and carried by said support member in a predetermined position corresponding to the predetermined position of the slit in the tear line.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,292, issued to Simhaee, illustrates a continuous web of bags formed of a plurality of layers to be separated along a line of perforations that extends through all of the layers transverse of the web, in which at least one of the outermost layers is detached from the web at the separation line. Apparatus accomplishes this detachment in a moving web by engaging the outermost layer outer surface and exerting a force in a manner to produce the detachment from the separation line. Both the outermost upper and lower web layers can be detached at the separation line.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,663, issued to Vaquero et al., discloses a thermoplastic bag structure and method for making and packaging thermoplastic bags such that their tops are easily identified and the bags are easily opened. The method for producing these bags begins with cutting a flattened thermoplastic tube into two portions. At least one of the two portions is then collapsed to form a sheet of material having a pair of thermoplastic layers, a straight folded bottom edge and a pair of top edges, at least one of which has a skewed-cut. Bag side structures are formed in the sheet of material at about bag-width distances apart. The bags are then folded a predetermined number of times, in a direction transverse to the bag side structures, so that the skewed-cut top edges of each of the bags remain exposed.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide plastic bags that can be easily stored on and dispensed from a variety of types of compact roll dispensers. It is a further objective to provide bags that can be formed into compact rolls on cores or without cores. It is a still further objective of the invention to provide bags that can be easily manufactured in gusseted or ungusseted form. Finally, it is an objective to provide roll mounted bags that are easily opened after dispensing and that are easily removed from the roll.
While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.